


Save yourself when no one else cares

by Sophie_Vers



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Bad Parent Janet Drake, Bruce Wayne Has Feelings, Detective Tim Drake, First Meetings, Janet Drake's A+ Parenting, Kid Fic, Kid Tim Drake, Kidnapping, Light Angst, Sad, Tim Drake Needs a Hug, Tim Drake-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 12:28:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21631402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sophie_Vers/pseuds/Sophie_Vers
Summary: By a lucky coincidence Bruce Wayne witnesses a kidnapping of 11 year old Tim Drake.When he arrives at the abandoned warehouse, the kidnappers have already contacted Janet Drake. Her reaction is... unsettling at best, not very motherly. In the end it turns out Batman's help wasn't even necessary, but Bruce Wayne definitely should make an appearance in the boy's life.
Relationships: Janet Drake & Tim Drake, Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne
Comments: 45
Kudos: 821
Collections: Tim Drake





	Save yourself when no one else cares

It really was a lucky coincidence that Batman witnessed a kidnapping of Tim Drake. 

He and Alfred were in the Wayne Manor’s study, older man locked them inside to make sure Bruce would finally take care of his long overdue paperwork for WE. As he was not one to waste time, the butler was also washing the windows.

Few minutes in their work, Alfred noticed an incoming black car on the horizon, which was pretty unusual considering the Wayne Manor was placed on the outskirts of Gotham, only other house in the neighborhood belonging to the Drakes, who he knew for a fact didn't own a car. Probably because they were rarely in town and taking a cab when they were around was more logical choice, at least for someone rich.

Then the car abruptly stopped and next thing Alfred noticed was a silhouette of two people, one of them probably a child considering their size difference. Alfred opened the door to the balcony and stepped outside to take a closer look at the scene. 

A moment later Bruce, having his attention taken off the important documents because of sudden lack of squishy noises of window cleaning, looked up to find his old friend nowhere in sight "Alfred?" he called. 

"Here, Master Bruce, on the balcony. I'm afraid my sight isn't as good as it was years ago. I can't even pinpoint what's going on mere few hundred meters away!" said the butler with clear remorse in his voice.

"Is someone there, Alfred?" asked Bruce, now also outside and nearing the railing to stand next to his father figure, from where he was now he could see only a black Toyota van without plates. As he got closer he as well noticed two figures. An adult dressed in all black, face covered with balaclava and a boy, probably teen aged struggling to get out of their grasp. To be fair for his old companion, he had to lean on the railing and squint his eyes to see this, but he recognized the boy.

“Sorry Alfred, the paperwork will have to wait, Tim Drake is being kidnapped!” Bruce ran straight to the front doors, stopping only to unlock the lock on the study’s entrance. He jumped down the stairs, something he spent so many years lecturing Dick about and finally got to the road, but it was too late. The car and boy were long gone.

xxxxx

After nearly an hour Batman, thanks to the city surveillance system, was able to track down the van to one of the abandoned warehouses near the docks. It was one those he regularly checked for criminal activity, so he could already cross from the list of suspects the gangs and villains that already tried to occupy it only to get to know the Bat closer.

He crept inside through one of the broken windows near the roof and hid in the rafters covered by shadows. 

The place he had chosen allowed him to look directly at Tim’s Drake face. He was currently tied to a chair with his arms behind the backrest. The position didn’t look uncomfortable, but Bruce knew from his own experience how ropes can rub into skin and sting later. What surprised him though was how the boy in himself didn’t look nervous in the slightest, his expression peaceful as if he was watching the whole scene on tv rather than being part of it.

In front of him were two kidnappers, presumably a man and woman if their body types were anything to go by. The man was on the phone, talking to somebody.

"Okay, we'll put you on speaker Ms Drake" 

It wouldn't be a good moment to attack, Batman realized. Janet Drake must already be terrified by the whole situation, hearing screams on the phone would do no good right now, so he waited.

"You’ve gone too far this time, Timothy.” woman’s angry voice echoed through the warehouse “Do you even realize how much of our time and money will get wasted if this goes public?! We'll have to stop our trip and go back to Gotham! I thought there weren’t any more possible ways for you to disappoint me, but you got yourself kidnapped! Again!”

For a while the whole warehouse was silent, even rats seemed to be taken aback by her outburst. If Batman could see himself, he would be met by the roundest eyes humanly possible.

Then Janet continued, her voice calm and cold this time "You can rough him up if you want, just don't kill him, organizing a funeral and pretending we are mourning the loss would be a pain in the ass. And don’t even try calling the police with your pitiful demands, you're not getting the money either way, but I'll make you suffer if you involve anybody else in this. Just let Timothy out on the street when you’re done, he’ll find his way home". She hung up.

Apparently the kidnappers didn't take into consideration a possibility that mother would not care for her kid’s well-being. Both of them were dumbstruck, man looking at the phone in his hand as if he was hypnotized and woman scowling at a wall as if it would answer her questions somehow.

"I'm sorry." These words surprised everyone and three heads whipped in the direction they came from. They became even more surprised when it became obvious the boy was the one who apologized.

"What? What are you apologizing for?" The woman, who still didn’t get over her initial shock, asked. 

"You won't get the money to save your daughter, because I didn’t earn my parents love, I really am sorry" said Tim with a small voice, looking at the ground.

How would a child so earnest and sweet ever be rejected by his parents like that, Batman couldn't understand. In moments like this, he questioned his love for Gotham. Her’s so called ‘elite’ was even worse than some poor people from Crime Alley.

"Oh Tim, sweetheart, don't say it like that” The woman must have a soft spot for children, because she completely dropped her evil-kidnapper act ”it's not your fault, you couldn’t have possibly done anything that wrong to-”

"Hey kid” the man interrupted “how did you know why we need the money? I'm sure we never said it!" he was visibly distressed,

"You're right, you didn't.” Tim answered indifferently.

“Then how...?”

“Well, it was quite obvious” the boy started tentatively but kept growing more confident with every word. “You, Mister, check your phone quiet frequently and then make eye contact with your partner, which would suggest you're both emotionally involved in whatever you're waiting updates for. Kidnapping in itself is bad prepared, many things are improvised, you're clearly not professionals and doing it under a pressure. 

I also caught a glimpse of your phone, Mister, you've got a photo of a young girl on your wallpaper and there was a notification from someone called "Nurse something", it was just a second I didn't read the name" He looked ashamed of himself for the lack of knowledge, even though he just did a great detective job. "Oh and also, you, Misses, smell like medications, so you must have spent a lot of time near them, possibly in a hospital." 

Some more silence followed the boy’s explanation. Tim’s eleven, Bruce reminded himself, he must be a genius, there is no way a normal eleven year old would be this smart.

"You're such a clever child” the woman finally said. ” I don't understand why your mom would think so badly of you" her voice now indicating she's on verge of tears.

If she’s so emotional about it, Tim’s conclusion must have been right. Batman was left speechless, he moved a little closer in anticipation so he wouldn’t miss anything.

Boy’s face now looked more like a tomato than human "You’re very kind, Mrs Wagger, but it’s not true, everyone would make a connection like that. And about my mother, it’s obvious she hates me. I'm not perfect." he gave his kidnappers a small smile that was more resigned then reassuring as Batman imagined the intention behind Tim smiling was. 

"Now you know our name too! What is this game?!" Clearly the man wasn’t as easily touched by the boy’s words as his partner.

Tim curled in on himself but his voice was still strong and didn't match his visible distress "I'm really sorry, it's just that there aren't many people that know about my existence outside of Gotham socialites, which you clearly aren't. You wouldn't need the money so desperately if you were. So I figured that you have to know me from school somehow, because it's the only place I spend time at beside my house. And you would need a way to get to know my address. So theoretically you could be from my school's staff and just stole this information, but then you wouldn't know I walk home instead of being driven by a car.“ he took a deep breath and continued.

“So your source of information must have been someone that knows a little more than what's on the files. That leaves my classmates as potential suspects. I didn't recognize the girl from the photo, so it could be someone's younger sister, but then, again, you would have the money to pay for the school which I'm in and that means for a treatment as well. So I had to find someone in contact with a kid from my class, who weren’t their parents, other relatives are also unlikely, because then you would ask them for money instead of planning a kidnapping. The only logical choice I see is the nanny. The only person with parents busy enough that need a nanny are Munchkins and her surname is Wagger. 

“I wasn't sure really, so I just said the name a little rushed." Tim said sheepishly, then looked up for the first time since he started talking and saw their horrified expressions. “There is nothing you have to worry about!" He added hurriedly, his arms flexing as if he wanted to make some move with his hands but was stopped by his restraints "I promise I won't tell anybody about this, I also want your daughter to get well, that's why I think you should go to Bruce Wayne and ask him for help." 

The pair was still looking incredulously at Tim, who seemed to be a little out of breath as if he wasn't used to talking so much. After a few seconds Mrs Wagger was the first to break the silence 

"Why would you know a name of Katrina's nanny? You aren't even close, she said you don't talk with your classmates much." 

"Knowledge is the ultimate weapon, Mr Wagger" Tim said as if he was repeating something he had heard many times "I make sure to know as much as I can about everything that's going on in my surroundings" 

"And why do you think Wayne would help us?" Apparently the pair didn’t decide to comment on anything concerning regarding the boy, Bruce understood that, there was too much to unpack there and kidnapping wasn’t a time for therapy.

"He may not look like much, but he committed his life to helping people, in a few different ways actually, but that's beside the point. Over 40 percent of yearly earnings of the Wayne Enterprises goes to different kinds of charities, he also does a lot on his own - building shelters for homeless people, supporting Gotham's police... Sorry, I'm babbling now. What I mean is, if you go and tell Mr Wayne about your situation, I assure you that he won't turn a blind eye to it." 

By the end of Tim's talk Ms Wagger took a deep breath and said in a small voice "You're something else Timothy. Thank you, we'll contact Wayne for sure, now I think would be a good moment to get rid of those ropes..." 

While Waggers took care of the boy's restraints, Bruce let his thoughts wander. Did Tim just apply he knew Bruce was Batman? With what he witnessed just now it wasn't really that hard to believe the boy could in fact figure out his identity. Bruce had met many intelligent people with great deduction skills in his life, many of them he worked with regularly on the League business, some of them he might even call friends on a good day. But none of them were teenagers, that's what made Tim special, it was just like if he was dripping potential and something deep inside Bruce forbid him from letting it get wasted. 

Another issue was that Tim apparently wasn't aware of how special he was. From the boy's lack of reaction to his mother's treatment, it was clearly something he was already used to. Bruce remembers meeting Janet Drake on a few occasions, but she surely didn't tend to show this side of her at social gatherings. He knows something about maintaining a separate personality for pure appearances. 

Now that he thinks about it, he has seen Tim a few times as well. Little young Drake boy, always quiet and polite, trailing after his parents like a shadow. Maybe that's why he never paid attention to him before. He surely wouldn't make that mistake again.

Batman followed the three of them to the bus stop, where he chose the lowest building’s rooftop as his perch.

“Are you sure you don’t want us to drop you off? We do have a car...” Ms Wagger asked concerned.

“It’s fine, really. You can’t waste money at a time like that and I know fuel is expensive.” Tim was fast to reassure her.

They stood in silence after that and just when the bus arrived, the woman spoke again. “Will you be alright? With a mother like that...”

Tim, who was already halfway to his chosen way of transportation, stopped, turned around and answered with a confused frown “I don’t understand what you mean, it’s not like she said anything that wasn’t true” then he waved in goodbyes and hurriedly ran to the bus.

Few minutes after the bus rode away, he kidnappers still stood in the same place, hugging each other. It must have been hard for them, an easy way to get much-needed money turned into an emotional rollercoaster. Batman felt the need to get some reassurance himself, he would talk with Alfred later. But first things first, he had to come back to the cave immediately and start doing some research. 

It was hard to believe that the only neighbors of the freaking Batman have been mistreating their child and got away with it for so long. Such a smart and good-hearted boy on top of that.

He’d make sure to keep a closer eye on the Drakes at the next party.

**Author's Note:**

> Please comment <3


End file.
